Jazz Articles about Hugh Ragin

Hugh Ragin: Fanfare & Fiesta

by Jim Santella
April 1, 2001

Recorded last June, this session moves in three distinct directions. Two cameo appearances by Clark Terry invite a lighthearted swing element. The title track moves toward creative improvised music, and yet is still in line with the mainstream. The remainder of the album invites unpredictable behavior through composed counterpoint and exciting solo performances.

Hugh Ragin, 50, cites the World Saxophone Quartet as his inspiration. A varied career has allowed the trumpeter to befriend different musical themes. With David Murray, he's ...

Hugh Ragin: Fanfare & Fiesta

by AAJ Staff
March 1, 2001

Until 1999, Hugh Ragin was vastly under-recorded. Appearing sporadically with David Murray, Anthony Braxton, D.D. Jackson or Roscoe Mitchell, Ragin inserted his individualistic style into his sounds, provoking an undercurrent of demand for more fully realized work. Justin Time followed up on Ragin's promise when it released An Afternoon In Harlem last year, a message-laden project that combined the energy of Harlem with Sun Ra-inspired spirituality and ruminations about escapes from slavery.On Fanfare & Fiesta, messages are laid ...

Hugh Ragin: An Afternoon in Harlem

by AAJ Staff
July 1, 2000

Trumpeter Hugh Ragin made this recording in late '98 in a (mostly) quartet format featuring pianist Craig Taborn, bassist Jaribu Shahid, and drummer Bruce Cox. The tunes, all Ragin originals, range from the sauntering bluesy strut of the title track to fast bebop to free jazz, concluding with a Sun Ra-inspired avant garde accompaniment to poetry read by Amiri Baraka. His liner notes establish the suite as a celebration of life in Harlem.

Ragin obviously plays the starring role here: ...